8/14/2019 let_me_go
1/2
This information was found online
at:http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.2576/pub_detail.asp
Let Me Go
Pope John Paul II at death.By Colleen Carroll CampbellPosted:
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
ARTICLENational Review OnlinePublication Date: March 22,
2006
Let Me Go, the new book co-written by Pope John Paul II's
personal physician,
reveals few details about the pope's death that were not already
divulged in theofficial Vatican report last fall. But news writers
have done their best to inciteinterest, by highlighting Dr. Renato
Buzzonetti's testimony that John Paul tried to delay the
tracheotomy heunderwent in his last hospital visit, refused to
return to the hospital when death was imminent, and receivedcare
from physicians who rejected "any new aggressive therapeutic
measure" on the day he died. Headlinestrumpet these nuggets
suggestively: "Pope John Paul Shunned Medical Treatment," shouts
one; "John Paula Tough Patient," proclaims another.
Given the headlines and the tone of the reports, casual readers
might assume that the decisions made bythe pope and his physicians
fell short of the Catholic Church's standard for sustaining life.
It is a highstandard, after all. The Church has always taught that
both passive and active euthanasia are grave evilsand the late pope
regularly criticized the "culture of death" in which physicians
give up too soon on the livesof the frail and elderly. In 2004, as
Catholic hospitals were increasingly sanctioning the removal of
food andwater from patients in a persistent vegetative state and
Michael Schiavo was winning his battle to starve his
wife, Pope John Paul II declared that food and water are always
part of the basic care due to all patients,even those in a
persistent vegetative state. He allowed only two exceptions to this
principle: Food and watermay be taken away when the patient's body
is no longer able to absorb them or when they no longeralleviate
the patient's suffering. An example of the latter case is a patient
who is on the brink of death fromanother underlying cause and food
and water are of no benefit, use, or comfort to him anymore.
The Church's teachings on end-of-life issues, and the late
pope's articulation and clarification of thoseteachings, had long
infuriated euthanasia advocates. They also riled many Catholic
ethicists and health-careprofessionals, who criticized the pope's
position on end-of-life issues as severe, unrealistic, and
inconsistentwith the Church's longstanding distinction between
ordinary and extraordinary means of sustaining life. IfJohn Paul's
own deathbed decisions contradicted Church teachings as he had
proclaimed them, that wouldbe news.
The key to interpreting the circumstances of John Paul's death
can be found in the very distinction that hiscritics accused him of
ignoring. The Catholic Church has long held that ordinary or
proportionate care --which is beneficial, useful, and not
unreasonably burdensome to the patient -- is morally
obligatory.Extraordinary or disproportionate care -- which may
include exotic, experimental, or excessivelyburdensome treatments
that are unlikely to benefit a patient or that include unreasonable
costs relative tobenefits -- is not morally obligatory, though a
patient may choose to accept it. The categories of ordinaryand
extraordinary care allow us to navigate between two dangerous
extremes: the vitalism that would haveus preserve life at all costs
by any means necessary without regard for the burdens imposed on
the patient,and the fatalism that would tempt us to give up on
gravely ill patients before their time and violate their rightsto
life and basic care.
When it comes to discerning the difference between ordinary and
extraordinary care, Catholic teachingmaintains a strong bias for
life. Decisions on end-of-life issues must be consistent with the
core Catholicprinciple that requires us to do what we can within
reason to preserve life and never do anything directlyintended to
end life.
The details published in Let Me Gosuggest that in his final
days, John Paul upheld this principle and avoided
t This
http://www.eppc.org/printVersion/print_pub.asp?pubID=2576
2 2009-09-01 11:13
Generated by Foxit PDF Creator Foxit
Softwarehttp://www.foxitsoftware.com For evaluation only.
8/14/2019 let_me_go
2/2
both the fatalism of his critics and the vitalism of which they
accused him. He patiently endured years ofsuffering from
Parkinson's disease and accepted feeding and breathing tubes in his
final weeks to sustainhis life. On March 31, when faced with what
his doctors recognized as imminent death, the pope decided tostay
home, surrounded by his loved ones, and spend his waning hours
praying and preparing to meet God.John Paul uttered his final words
on April 2: "Let me go to the house of the Father." Then he lapsed
into abrief coma. After running an electrocardiogram for more than
20 minutes that night, Buzzonetti declared himdead.
The new details of the pope's death reaffirm what we already
knew. John Paul loved this life and acceptedits joys and sorrows in
equal measure. He did not seek an easy exit from suffering. Nor did
he ignore thereality of his own death. He faced it with courage,
trusting in the promise of eternal life that he hadproclaimed to
the whole world, the promise upon which he had staked his entire
life.
-- Colleen Carroll Campbell, an NRO contributor, is a fellow at
theEthics and Public Policy Center, a
former speechwriter to President George W. Bush, and author
ofThe New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are
Embracing Christian Orthodoxy.
t This
http://www.eppc.org/printVersion/print_pub.asp?pubID=2576
2 2009-09-01 11:13
Generated by Foxit PDF Creator Foxit
Softwarehttp://www.foxitsoftware.com For evaluation only.
